“Lost” Producers Tell All! … (Not Really)

A chat with “Lost” executive producers Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse isÂ always a delicate dance.Â On one hand, they’re very accessible and engaging and they exude the passion of true TV fans. On the other, they have secrets to guard and they’ll only go so far in their discussion of the show.

Of course, that’s how it should be.

Next Thursday, “Lost” returns from aÂ break necessitated by the writers strike — in a new time slot (10 p.m., ABC) and we’re being promised some “large and seismic events.” Damon and Carlton took some time onÂ Thursday toÂ speak with reporters during a conference call. Here’s a rundownÂ of some of the topics they covered:

— On how the second half of the season will be more “epic” than the first: â€œThe first half ofÂ a season is setting up the dilemmas for the characters, and then in the second half, we try to pay those off,” Carlton said. “The thing that was frustrating about the writersâ€™ strike was that we has just done the setup part of the season then we had to stop for 100 days. But then when we came back, we got the chance to fulfill all of our narrative desires and so all the stuff we set up in the first half of the season is going to pay off. Obviously weâ€™re missing a lot of pieces between that flash-forward we saw at the end of last season — how the OceanicÂ 6 got off the island and what connects to that event and we also are going to move forward from that point in time.”

— On what happens next with the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle:Â â€œAll we can say is, Sawyer is not one of the Oceanic 6, and Jack and Kate are, and obviously there will be a huge focus in these final three hours of theÂ the season onÂ â€¦ how that series of events transpire, and ultimately what happens to Sawyer (is addressed) and itâ€™s all on the axis of the love triangle,” Damon said.Â “… There will beÂ a bounty of interesting romantic scenes.” As for Jack and Juliet, Damon said the show will revisit the “emotional idea” of that in the May 1 episode.

— On whether we’ll be seeing more of billionaire Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and his daughter, Penny (Sonya Walger): â€œA character’s importance can change over time,” Carlton said. “Without saying too much, that willÂ be very much true for Alan Dale.â€ …Â â€œYouâ€™ll probably be seeing him sooner rather than later,â€Â Damon added.Â … As for Penny — and Desmond (Ian Cusick) — Damon said they love the romantic chemistry between the two and are eager to return to that.Â Â “We feel some of the best episodes the show has ever done arenâ€™t because theyâ€™re weird time-travel stories, itâ€™s because itâ€™s so focused on that love story between Penny and Desmond,” he said.Â “… Unfortunately Sonya is a very in-demand actorÂ … so it has been challenging for us to procure her services, but when she becomes available we will hopefully be using her again.”

— On whether Claire (Emilie de Ravin)Â will be back next season (rumors have it that Claire will die): â€œWe donâ€™t really want to comment any particular characterâ€™s fate, because we feel like that would spoil what happens on the show between now and the end of the season,” Carlton said.Â “Suffice to say thereâ€™s some very compelling events involving Claireâ€™s character between now and the season finale.”

— On the fate ofÂ crazy French woman Danielle Rousseau (who was shot in the last new episode): â€œThe good thing about â€˜Lostâ€™ is that often being dead leads to more work on the show. â€¦ If in fact Rousseau does prove to be dead, that doesnâ€™t have much bearing on us telling her story,” Carlton said. “We think that the whole back story of Rousseau and her science team and the ship that came to the islandÂ (before the plane crash)Â is pretty interesting and weâ€™d love to tell that story at some point.”Â

— On the “monster” and Jacob: â€œYou will see Smokey in the first episode back, youâ€™re also going to get another healthy dose of Jacob before the end of the season,â€ Cuse said.

— On why they needed two hours for the season finale on May 29:Â â€œWe had an eight-hour story plan that got condensed down to five initially, as a result of the strike, and in trying to cram all that story in â€¦ we realized that it all felt rushed and we were shortchanging our emotional moments, our character moments,” Damon said. “We read the 80-page first draft of (theÂ final hour) and looked at each other and said, â€˜Thereâ€™s no way weâ€™re going to be able to cut this down.â€™ Why donâ€™t we expand it to 100 pages?â€

— On the pressure toÂ deliver yet anotherÂ jaw-dropping season finale: â€œItâ€™s tough. You canâ€™t think â€¦ â€˜How do we outdo ourselves?â€™ Last year was a one-time only opportunity to present a flash-forward as a flash back. I think people will be watching this year, on the edge of their couches, trying to figure out if weâ€™re up to any shenanigans,” Damon said. “And therefore we purposely presented this story in a more accessible way so that itâ€™s more about what happens than about some sort of smoke-and-mirrors that weâ€™re trying to employ. â€¦ Itâ€™s going to be a much different animal. (They just finished writing the finale, titledÂ â€œThereâ€™s No Place Like Home,â€Â on Monday).

— On the brain-scrambling notion that, starting next season, the show will mess with time in new ways: â€œThere might come a time in the show where the word â€˜flashâ€™ becomes irrelevant,” Damon said. “If you stop and think about what weâ€™ve done this year, there is the story on the island which we perceive to be the present and the story of the Oceanic 6 which is happening in the future. But what if we were to switch perspectives and suddenly we were off the island focusing on the Oceanic 6 trying to get back? That would then be the present and what was happening back on the island would be either a parallel present, possibly a future, possibly a past. So when you hear the whoosh noise the question becomes, where does that take you?â€

(Me: I have no idea, but I’d venture to guess — the loony bin).Â

Â — On whether theyÂ haveÂ determined what the final sceneÂ (and dialogue) of the entire series will be: â€œAs for the last line of dialogue, we need a little bit of wiggle room, but the last scene has definitely been determined. There would have to be some major shift in both our mindsets to back off that. Thatâ€™s what weâ€™ve been working toward for a couple years, even before the (2010) end date was announced,â€ Damon said.